I know several CEOs who want to always hire the smartest person they could find for leadership roles. Unfortunately, they are making costly mistakes.
Intellectual intelligence is only one of several factors for recruiters and hiring managers to consider when choosing among candidates and for executives and talent leaders to consider when deciding whom to promote into executive, first level leadership, and customer-facing roles.
What is better?
Emotional intelligence is one of the most important predictors of job success for those in leadership, sales, and customer facing (such as customer service) or public facing roles, (such as police officers).
In 1990, Peter Salovey and John Mayer coined the term emotional intelligence, which is “The ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions.” Emotional intelligence is defined as having three main branches:
- Appraisal and expression of emotion
- Regulation of expression
- Utilization of emotion
Peter Salovey and John Mayer explain that there is nothing wrong with having negative emotions; after all, it is part of being human. What is critically important, however, is the component of personal growth and using all emotions intelligently.
Our understanding of emotional intelligence leaped forward in 1998 with the publishing of Working with Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. After an exhaustive survey of the empirical research and packing the book with case histories, Goleman asserted that the higher a person’s position, the more emotional intelligence mattered. It is what distinguishes star performers from the average performer and is critical for successful leadership. He also asserted that it can be learned.
In his book, Goleman defined The Emotional Competence Framework. This framework identifies three personal competencies that determine how we manage our ourselves. They are self-awareness, self-control, and motivation. Goleman’s framework identifies two social competencies that determine how we handle relationships: empathy and social skills. He defines social skills in the work setting as an adeptness at inducing desirable responses in others.
Please see his model below.
Other researchers have found that emotional intelligence has predictive validity for leadership roles and professions that involve negotiation, building trust, and working with stress. One study conducted by Ruth Jacobs and Wei Chen even found that people with the highest emotional intelligence were more likely to succeed in a position than those who were strongest in IQ or relevant previous experience.
Ruth Jacobs and Wei Chen spoke to hundreds of top executives at fifteen global companies including IBM, PepsiCo, and Volvo. They found that statistically the difference between those regarded as star performers (top 5 percent) and average performers was primarily attributable to higher ratings attained by the stars on these soft skill parameters. In fact for senior leadership positions, 90 percent of the difference between the stars and average leaders was attributable to difference in ratings on emotional competencies such as influence, team leadership, political awareness, self confidence, and achievement drives. Jacobs and Chen found that only 10 percent was due to any cognitive or technical skills (mainly strategic thinking). Job retention is also linked to emotional intelligence.
To be sure, leaders have to have the technical competence to earn the respect of their organizations, and they need to know how the latest emerging technologies, social trends and laws will affect their organization. They will need to be able to articulate a vision and draw people to it, deploy strategies and operating mechanisms. They will need to be smart, driven, have sound values—and intelligence. But without emotional intelligence they often turn out to be uninspiring leaders, are unable to listen openly, be a catalyst for change, leverage diversity, motivate employees, recognize their limitations, develop others, and resolve conflicts.
More recent research (published in 2024) has found that emotional intelligence is positively linked to positive psychological characteristics, well-being, and academic achievement, particularly with postgraduate students. Studies also show that emotional intelligence is associated with increased job satisfaction, reduction in conflict in relationships and a greater ability to effectively manage conflict.
Are you using structured interviews or assessments to measure emotional intelligence? Is it a competence you require for your leaders? To learn more about screening for emotional intelligence when hiring or considering promotions, read this.
Contact me at VA@VictorHRConsultant.com. to learn more about screening for emotional intelligence while hiring and promoting employees.
Updated by Victor Assad on May 28, 2025
About Victor
Victor Assad is the CEO of Victor Assad Strategic Human Resources Consulting and Managing Partner of InnovationOne, LLC. He works with organizations to transform HR and recruiting, implement remote work, and develop extraordinary leaders, teams, and innovation cultures. He is the author of the highly acclaimed book, Hack Recruiting: The Best of Empirical Research, Method and Process, and Digitization. He is quoted in business journals such as The Wall Street Journal, Workforce Management, and CEO Magazine. Victor, with his partner Dr. Brooke Dobni, has partnered with The Conference Board and the US Department of Energy on innovation research. Subscribe to his weekly blogs at http://www.VictorHRConsultant.com
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